The news went unnoticed. Days before Sunday 13, the Government had announced the historic exit of the exchange rate and the issue had monopolized the conversations. But in Santa Fe, La Libertad advances premiered a stamp and did not go as expected: there were third parties behind the provincial ruling and Peronism, when they aspired to press Governor Maximiliano Pullaro. Karina Milei’s first test as shipowner was failed.
The beginning of the electoral calendar was cruel to “the boss.” The president’s sister had deposited her shadow confidence in Santa Fe, deputy Romina Diez, but failed to build competitive lists. The lack of support of Javier Milei and his cabinet is one of the issues that the candidates reproach: there was not even messages of encouragement. The government must start twisting the helm if you do not want electoral defeats to begin to accumulate. “They are provincial campaigns, they cannot be nationalized,” a libertarian leader defends himself. But bad results could build a snowball difficult to stop.
Reproaches.
In order not to point to Karina Milei as the person responsible for the first electoral defeat, at the beginning of the national calendar, some provincial leaders point to the Menem. That “Lule” had promised 25 points (far from the 14.11% they achieved), which lacked financial and, above all, political support. The only minister who arrived in Rosario was Patricia Bullrich. The president and his cabinet were completely oblivious to the situation.
In the final stretch, knowing that they were going to be overwhelmed by Governor Pullaro, Milei preferred to ignore the matter: he did not dedicate a tweet to the historic Santa Fe election, where the conventional ones that will reform the provincial Constitution were chosen.
The proof that they already handled that a negative result would be coming for freedom progress was reflected on Mariano Cúneo Libarona’s cell phone. At the exit of the national chain, a cameraman filmed a chat that the Minister of Justice maintained. “On Sunday in Santa Fe it will be wrong,” he said. And so it was.
Romina Diez also, Karina’s owner, sought to moderate expectations. Before the closure begins, he tweeted: “For all who think that we move the ammeter an election, I clarify that we are a new party, with 0 councilors, from there up everything is gain,” he wrote. And he completed: “The most exciting thing is that the cultural battle is firm and installed. And that is what hurts them … they call it.”
With the elusive result, there was some recrimination towards lack of support. Deputy Nicolás Mayoraz, who headed the list of conventional constituents, was subtle in his criticism of Milei before the question of this chronicler: “It would now be a contrafactic speculation: ‘What would have happened if …’?
Oasis.
Not everything was a failure for freedom advances in his debut at the polls of 2025. It is that the candidate of Rosario had a very good performance: he was first in the city and they already applied to play the intention of the third largest city in the country in 2027.
Juan Pedro Aleart is a journalist becoming a politician. He led a local news for many years and was national news after counting live that he had suffered domestic abuses during his childhood. His landing in La Libertad Avanza produced a lot of noise and was sheltered by Patricia Bullrich, who took a sheet with her candidate.
ALEART meant one of the few reasons for celebration for the ruling party. At Casa Rosada, his name sounded strongly. In networks, he was also one of the few candidates rescued by the militancy. The Twitter Milei Emperor account, which is attributed to the presidential advisor Santiago Caputo, barely appointed him Eugenia Rolón, who had left third in his department (see box). Of others, nothing.
It is the way of marking, subtly, errors to the other vertex of the iron triangle. Karina’s assembly was not good in her first raid of the year as a strategist. La Libertad progresses went through the Batacazo and stayed just with 14% of the votes in Santa Fe.
